What Might Have Been
by Agent Striker
Summary: What if there was no School, and there never had been? This is a short story of what each member of the flock's lives would have been like…please read and reviews! T for slight implication.


**Just something I just randomly came up with…please be nice! **** The school doesn't exist, this is just a peak into the everyday lives of the members flock, sorry if I don't get all the details right! And I don't own anything!**

**Angel and the Gasman:**

In a small apartment on the bad side of New York City a boy of 8 and a little girl who was barely 6 were trying their hardest to be quite. They had come home from school to find their mother passed out on the sofa. This, sadly, wasn't a rare occurrence in the Bruun household. Their mother was not a mom that would ever be in the running for the mom of the year contest…she was mean when she was sober and even worst when she was drunk.

Gabe had seen his mother first; he had been walking in front of his young sister, Angelina. Putting his small finger to his lips he pointed to the couch then motioned for his sister to follow him to the kitchen. Once inside, with his sister fearfully standing beside the table in the center of the room, Gabe quietly closed the dingy door and turned, smiling at his sister, "Looks like we get to make our own dinner tonight!"

Angelina smiled and said solemnly, "But first we have to do our homework."

Gabe faked a frown, "Aw, do we have to?"

"Don't give me any of that attitude Gabriel Brunn!" Giggling quietly the two children sat down at the table and began to work on homework. About half an hour later a groan and the sound of someone throwing up came from the living room. Looking up Gabe said to his sister, "Go quick, hide on the fire escape!" Angelina nodded; this was all pretty routine to the 6 year old. As Gabe headed for the door, Angelina headed for the already open window, and stepped on to the fire escape where she crouched and listened to what was going on inside, "When did you get here?" Came the rough, hung-over voice of Mrs. Brunn.

"A half hour ago…you were asleep," Gabe lied, knowing full well that his mother had been drinking and had passed out, "And we didn't want to wake you."

SLAP! "Liar…you lying…"Another slap thundered through the apartment, "I hate you…" Mrs. Brunn's voice broke into a sob, "If I hadn't got in with Henry," the woman sobbed, referring to the man who had fathered her kids then left her penniless, "Why me?" Mrs. Brunn slumped to the sofa and picked up the half full bottle of gin and took a swig, "Go away!"

The rest of her words were lost in a mumbled sob as Gabe slipped back to the kitchen. Once inside he waited for the noise in the living room to stop before he called his sister, "You can come in,"

Angelina was shocked by her brother's face but didn't say anything. Gabe smiled, "Let's have dinner on the fire escape! We can have a picnic!"

Angelina's worries were pushed aside, but not forgotten, "Can we have picnic food?"

Gabe nodded as he pulled bread, jelly, peanut butter, two slightly bruised apples and for desert, a Hershey's chocolate bar, "Come on, let's go!"

Angelina stepped out first then put the napkins and an old towel on the ground. Gabe handed her the food then he too stepped outside.

As they sat eating Angel suddenly pointed to the roof, "Look, a bird!"

Gabe smiled, and he too looked at the bird, he and his sister's thoughts were the same, _If I had wings, I'd fly somewhere where I'd be loved._

**Iggy:**

A tall, fair haired, fair skinned boy of 14 or 15 walked slowly down his quite street near Washington D.C. The boy, James O'Brian was his name, had lived on the same street in the same house since the day he was born. His mom was a home-maker, she was thin and fair-haired like her son but the boy had his father's pale blue eyes. James's father worked in an advertizing office in downtown D.C., he was a tall, slightly overweight man of forty-eight. Both he and his wife adored their son; they had lost several babies before James had been born. He was the apple of his parent's eyes. Most of the time this drove James crazy, he hated having to be perfect. But when he did something that made his mom cry, it hurt him, a lot more then he showed. Sighing, the boy walked up to the dark door of his home. "I'm home, Mom." James called as he dropped his stuff at the door and headed toward the smell of chocolate chip cookies that was wafting into the hallway.

"How was your day, hon?" The lady smiled at her son as she scooped the cookies off the cookie tray and on to a small plate sitting on the counter next a tall glass of milk

"Okay," James said as he took a bite of his mom's cookies. As he ate, James humored his mom, telling her about his day. "I've got to go and do my homework."

"Okay, call me if you need any help!" his mom called as he left the country style kitchen. She smiled sadly, her little boy was growing up.

Picking up his backpack James headed up the narrow stairs to his room. He quickly completed his math homework then moved on to English. Finally he pulled out his science book and started in on his favorite subject. Just as he finished up he heard the door slam, meaning his dad was home and dinner was on the table. James stood up and was already down the hall way when he heard his mother call to him that dinner was ready.

When the family sat down for dinner, Mr. and Mrs. O' Brian bow their heads to pray and James followed suit. James looked up from his plate at out the window behind his father. A strong winged bird swooped up and down catching the currents of air. _If I had wings I'd fly forever and do something completely out of the ordinary. _

**Nudge: **

A thin, short haired girl of 11 or 12 stepped off the school bus into the Arizona heat. Monique Santiago lived in Tipisco, a town in western Arizona. She would have been pretty, with her part African American blood, her skin was a beautiful mocha color and her hair, when contained, was a dark chocolate, but a frown changes a lot about a person's look. And a frown was a constant state with Monique. With a sigh, the girl worked her way up the hill to the entrance of the trailer park that was her home. At the top of the hill the girl took a left and followed the road to the last trailer on the left. If possible, when Monique's frown deepened when she saw her mother's figure sitting in an old lawn chair, cigarette dangling from her long fingers. "Hey kid," The woman said as she looked past her daughter, "Greg's going to be here soon, make yourself scarce."

Monique shrugged, "Whatever." But internally, she grimaced at the mention her mother's current boyfriend, and walked past her and into the dingy trailer. Heading into the small back room that served as her bedroom she dropped her stuff on the bed and pushed open the window just as the loud backfiring of a trunk told her that Greg was here. She reached under her mattress and grabbed $10 that she had taken from her mother's purse and scooted out of the window. Once outside, Monique reached into her pants pocket, pulling out a cigarette and a match. After lightning the cigarette, the girl sat with her back to the trailer and took a deep drag. As she sat there and smoked, she contemplated what she was going to do for dinner. She had two choices, 1: go back inside in a couple hours and sneak some food, hoping Greg didn't see her…and try to hurt her…or 2: she could walk to town and get McDonalds.

Standing up and extinguishing the cigarette Monique decided on the second option. The girl started toward the highway and walked the 3 miles on the outside of the fence that kept people off the highway in silence. At the edge of town Monique flipped the bird at a drive that had almost ran her over as the car came around the corner.

Three blocks later, Monique entered the McDonalds and ordered as much as she could with 10 bucks. She sat down at a corner table to enjoy her meal, looking out the window she saw some sort of hawk, _If I had wings, I'd fly away from here and never look back._

**Fang:**

Nick Papadopoulos jogged up the stairs of the small apartment he lived in, on Grand Street in Arlington, Virginia. He slipped the key into the lock and entered the empty apartment. As he walked past the hall mirror he tried not to look, but he did. The tall, thin, olive skinned boy who looked to be 14 or 15 years old with shaggy black hair looking back looked…lost. Nick tried to avoid mirrors since that day last month; _Nick was surprised to hear the TV still on when he got up one Friday morning. His mom worked the late shift and if she was home when he got up, she was usually in bed. He showered and dressed, as he walked into the living room his mother grinned happily from the couch, "Surprise! I took the day off! I thought we could-" she paused as she looked closely at him, her hand flew to her mouth, "Oh my God,"_

"_What?" Nick asked, glancing back at the mirror, he looked normal. When he looked back his mom had tears streaming down her olive colored cheeks, "Mom, what's the matter?"Nick questioned as he rushed to his crying mother._

"_You, you look so much like him!" She was trying to smile through the tears, "I don't know why I just noticed."_

_Nick didn't know what to say but, "Who? Who do I look like?"_

"_Your dad."_

He had asked his mother hundreds of times who his father was, but she would never tell. He shook his head and headed for the kitchen. There was a note on the table, _I'll be late tonight, working overtime, Chicken in the fridge, put in oven at 350 and let cook for 30 minutes, enjoy! __ Love ya, Mom_

Nick shook his head, he had no idea how she ever had time to cook. But he happily put the chicken in the oven, he was starving. He closed the oven door and straightened up. He smiled at the picture that hung over the stove, it was him and his mom, he had only been a few months old…but she was only 16, he had been born when she was in 10th grade…Although he would swear otherwise, he was ashamed of his mom's choices…but then again he was glad that she hadn't gotten an abortion and ended his life.

He started to the ancient computer his mom had gotten from one of her co-workers years ago and booted it up. Once he got to the internet he opened Facebook, not surprised to see a message from Lissa, his girl friend. She was 'so in love with him' but he wasn't so sure that he loved her. He just felt that there was someone out there that was his soul mate…Someone who wasn't always trying to change him. He messed around until the timer when off, telling him his dinner was ready.

After sitting down with a good sized portion of food on plate, he absently stared out the window. A black bird was soaring high in the endless sky, _If I could fly, I'd find my dad and sent him to Mom…then I'd find her…my soul mate._

**Maximum Ride:**

If there wasn't a school, Maximum Ride would never exist.

**Yay! All done! Did you like it? Hate it? Review and tell me what you think! :D**

**Agent Striker**

**A side note about the names:**

**Angel and Gaz are blonde haired blued eyed, so I made them Swedish, **_**Bruun**_

**Iggy has red hair and pale skin, so I made him Irish, **_**O'Brian**_

**Nudge is part African American, so the last name I chose was kind of…Island-ish, **_**Santiago**_

**Fang has olive skin and black hair, so I made him Greek, **_**Papadopoulos**___

**Thanks again for reading! Please Review!**

**Agent Striker**


End file.
